Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso set to appear in court to answer tax charges

The duo played together at Real Madrid from 2009 till 2014.

BBC Sport broke the news recently that former Real Madrid teammates Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso are set to appear in a Madrid Court on 22nd January to answer separate ‘tax evasion charges.’

Cristiano Ronaldo, who reportedly left Madrid for Juventus this year after being accused of tax evasion in 2017 has already plead guilty to his crime and has opted to pay a fine of 18.8 million euros to the treasury and a further 12 million pounds to avoid going to prison (In Spain, if the prison sentence is anything below 2 years, the guilty can choose to forego it by paying a heavy fine instead).

Ronaldo is expected to plead guilty when he appears in court and his two-year prison sentence is supposed to be foregone on the account of the monetary settlement and probation under Spanish Law.

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Xabi Alonso, on the other hand, will attend the Madrid Provincial Court for the first time following an accusation that was brought against the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich midfielder in March 2018. Alonso allegedly failed to declare image rights and owes the authorities in Spain as much as 1.7 million pounds.

According to various reports, Xabi Alonso is facing three counts of tax fraud that deals with the sale of image rights through accountant Ivan Zaldua Azcuenaga to Ignasi Maestre Casanova and Kardazil Commercial Services which is accused to have been a shell company that facilitated the return of the proceeds to Alonso. And while Alonso has denied the accusations brought against him, he could face upto five years in prison and a fine upwards of 3.5 million pounds if prosecutors succeed in proving him guilty.